1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method of encoding and decoding an image file, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method of adding, storing, and using animation data in an image file, regardless of the type (e.g., JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc.) of the image file.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image files, such photos or drawings, have various formats (i.e., data structures) and extensions. For example, the various formats (and extensions) of the image files include Bitmap (*.BMP, *.RLE), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) (*.JPG), Compuserve GIF (*.GIF), PNG (*.PNG), Photoshop (*,PSD, *.PDD), TIFF (*.TIF), Acrobat PDF (*.PDF), RAW (*.RAW), Illustrator (*.AI), Illustrator, Photoshop EPS (*.EPS), Amiga IFF (*.IFF), FlaschPix (*.FPX), Filmstrip (*.FRM), PCX (*.PCX), PICT File (*.PCT, *TIC), Pixar (*.PXR), Scitex (*.SCT), and Targa (*.TGA, *.VDA, *.ICB, *.VST).
Often, an image file includes image information and user information or additional information related to an image.
However, a conventional additional information added to the image file is limited to the user information or image meta information, and an application of the additional information is limited to classifying and searching an image.
An animation file has a format and an extension, which are different from those of conventional still image files, and can be reproduced only by a specific application. As a result, when a multimedia apparatus of a user cannot support such a format, inconvenience is caused in that a content of the animation file cannot be identified.